Typically levers disposed within clamps to either drive a bar through a jaw assembly or to provide a brake that holds a jaw assembly in a secure position along a bar are straight, plate-like members with apertures formed therein. The aperture of a conventional lever may be designed such that if the lever is positioned at an unengaged position generally perpendicular to a bar, the bar may slide relatively freely therethrough. If the lever is moved from the unengaged position to an engaged position at which the orientation of the lever is at an angle with respect to perpendicular to the bar, the edge surfaces on opposite sides of the aperture engage the bar to secure the position of the lever on the bar.
While various drawbacks may be associated with levers that are configured such that the positional difference between the engaged position and the unengaged position is relatively large, decreasing this positional difference with a conventional, substantially straight lever may require one or both of increasing the thickness of the lever or decreasing a clearance between the bar and the aperture formed in the lever. However, each of these solutions has various drawbacks.